Group's request in Medicaid suit tossed by Arkansas judge

At issue are cuts to benefits under ARChoices program

A judge on Thursday rejected a request by an advocacy group and three disabled Arkansans to intervene in a lawsuit challenging reductions in home-based care provided to thousands of Medicaid recipients.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen also heard arguments from attorneys for Jonesboro-based Legal Aid of Arkansas, which filed the suit, and the state Department of Human Services on both sides' requests for a final judgment in the case, but he didn't immediately issue a ruling.

The lawsuit contends that the Human Services Department failed to provide adequate public notice before implementing a new method for allocating hours of home-based care to the disabled under the Medicaid-funded ARChoices program in 2016.

Siding with Legal Aid in February 2017, Griffen issued a temporary order that reversed benefit cuts for the seven Arkansans named as plaintiffs in the suit.

The state Supreme Court upheld the order in November.

In its request to intervene, Disability Rights Arkansas noted that the order didn't help thousands of others --including three that the group sought to add as plaintiffs -- whose benefits were also cut.

The group also noted that any ruling issued by Griffen would affect all 8,800 Arkansans who receive services under the state's ARChoices program, not just the seven participants represented by Legal Aid.

Both Legal Aid and the Human Services Department opposed the request to intervene, arguing, in part, that it would only prolong a resolution of the case.

In his ruling from the bench on the intervention request, Griffen said he couldn't allow the three Arkansans represented by Disability Rights Arkansas to join the case without allowing time to explore the facts about those Arkansans' circumstances.

He said it was too early for Disability Rights Arkansas to challenge changes to the ARChoices program that may result from the suit.

The claims of the group's clients "can be prosecuted in a separate action apart from this lawsuit without any jeopardy to their rights and without any delay in the disposition of [Legal Aid's] case," Griffen said.

Thomas Nichols, managing attorney for Disability Rights Arkansas, said he was disappointed with the ruling and would confer with the group's clients on whether to appeal or file a separate lawsuit.

Metro on 04/20/2018

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